Sweeter Than Chocolate
by florienna
Summary: "If you could eat whatever you wanted to eat, what would you like?" "Anything I want?" "Yup, anything!"


Soup again huh, Yuu thought to himself.

Well, soup was a very generous word for the substance in front of him. He slowly stirred his crude wooden spoon through the heavily diluted liquid, pushing past the sparse chunks of boiled potatoes. Half fill the spoon, flop the liquid back with a splash, repeat.

"What's wrong, Yuu-nii? Why aren't you eating?" one of the smaller toddlers piped up.

"Nothing's wrong," Yuu quickly lied. "I was just waiting for it to cool." He hastily shoved a spoonful of soup into his mouth and tried not to think too hard on the flavour, or rather the lack of it.

Yuu could practically feel the knowing look Mika was radiating next to him. Screw Mika. Without looking up from his bowl Yuu kicked him in the leg under the table.

"Ow! What was that for, Yuu-chan?"

"You know what it was for, idiot"

"Don't be a meanie."

"You're the-"

"No fighting at the dinner table!" Akane cut in sternly, mock tapping them on their heads with the serving ladle. The table burst into laughter. Yuu averted his head to the side with an embarrassed scowl while Mika flashed his disarmingly sunny smile that oozed 'who, me?'

Soon everyone settled back down as they carried on slurping their bowls of soup with the obliviousness to taste that only young children and those who are starving possess. Their wrists were all thin, frail and fragile, and yet they were energetically clinging to their small servings. They were practically infants but their hunger had taught them not to spill a single drop.

This is wrong, Yuu thought. Kids should be messy, food dribbling naively down their chins and staining their shirts. His heart felt heavy with anger at yet another reminder of their cruel life in captivity.

The dinner table conversation was close to getting heated as an argument was in the works over a missing crayon. Mika swooped in with a reassuring "It's okay Kagame, we'll have a look in the toy box after dinner" and then smoothly changed the topic to "But really, thank you for always cooking for us Akane!"

"It's no problem," Akane smiled back. "I like cooking and it gives me something to do. I'm sorry there hasn't been much ingredients for meals lately…"

"No, no, it's fine. Your food is delicious as always," Mika said and Akane's shoulders slumped in quiet gratefulness. It was the older ones who remembered what a proper meal should be, who could still recall their laden dinner tables at the orphanage and stomachs full enough to burst. For most of the younger children this poverty stricken way of living was all they could remember.

"But still…" Akane continued reluctantly as if she didn't want to bring the issue up but felt obliged to speak. "If this continues…"

"Don't worry about it," Mika said with that confidence of his that instantly lightened the mood. "I'll take care of it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yuu muttered quiet enough for only Mika to hear. "Don't get their hopes up."

"Isn't it better to keep them smiling? Besides I have my own plans, you'll see. Hey, Yuu-chan," Mika raised his voice back to normal. "If you could eat whatever you wanted to eat, what would you like?"

"Anything I want?"

"Yup, anything!"

"I would want curry!" one of the kids squealed excitedly.

"No, rice is better!" another one instantly refuted causing another debate to break out amongst them. Mika's eyes hadn't left Yuu's with an intensity that felt strange coupled with his soft smile. Yuu felt a bit flustered.

"Um, well" he floundered. "I didn't get much food from my parents. I would look through the fridge whenever they weren't home or have leftovers."

Mika was listening attentively with that same understanding look on his face that he always had when Yuu chose to talk about his past family.

"But I remember the food at the orphanage and I read a book the other day on different recipes and desserts. It was lying in a bookshelf in one of the empty homes in the other street. I remember the taste of chocolate from the cake when I first joined the orphanage."

"I remember that too! I helped decorate it you know."

"I didn't know that," Yuu said in surprise.

"Didn't I tell you? That's strange,' Mika mused. " We all had chores to do every day remember? It was my turn on kitchen duty that day so I watched the cook bake the cake and then she let me spread the chocolate fudge and sprinkles on top. My love made it the tastiest cake ever!"

"Yeah, yeah," Yuu scoffed unable to stop the small laugh slipping from his mouth. He felt a strong resolution rise in his chest. "I'm going to kill all the vampires and then we can eat like kings. We'll have curry and rice and chocolate every day!"

"But you'll get fat, Yuu-chan."

Mika totally deserved that second kick to his shin, no matter what Akane lectured afterwards.

...

...

.

..

...

"What a long day," Yuu groaned to himself. He dragged his exhausted body and collapsed onto his bed.

Everything had been crazy lately. From his disastrous reunion with Mika (and the overflow of emotions like a freight train that Mika was alive. Alive!) to the rigorous training that had swamped him every day since he recovered Yuu felt like an abused rag doll. His limbs were aching like they were made of lead- hell, he bet his muscle aches had their very own aches.

But was it worth it? Absolutely. He had to get stronger, he had to train harder, he had to push himself more to have the power to save Mika.

That didn't mean he didn't feel like jelly now though.

With another groan Yuu closed his eyes and flopped over to his side. His mattress felt like a fluffy heavenly cloud to him right now.

There was something poking him in his arm.

What on earth…?

Snapping his eyes open, Yuu sat up and looked down.

There was a package on his bed.

Yuu had got a package.

Oh my god.

Yuu felt himself vibrate with excitement as it burst within him. In all his life, this was the first time he had ever got anything from the post let alone a package. What could it be? Who was it from?

Wait…confusion began to cloud over his emotions. Who would send Yuu a package? His teammates were all living in the same dorms as him so that wouldn't make sense. Maybe Guren was too lazy to hand him something so he sent it instead?

More curious than ever now, Yuu grabbed the object of mystery. It was a fairly inconspicuous, a medium sized cardboard box with his full name and address printed formally on the white paper label.

Shrugging to himself, Yuu crossed his legs properly and pried open the folded edge. He tried to contain his strength, taking care not to damage whatever was inside. This was his first package after all. He flipped the open box upside down and emptied the contents onto his bed.

Two pairs of trousers and three shirts landed. They were soft, softer than anything Yuu had ever touched with his fingertips and woven delicately in silky threads. Yet they also looked durably strong and felt thick enough to keep him comfortably warm in the cold.

As he picked up one of the trousers Yuu felt something tucked into one of its pockets.

It was a chocolate bar. Holy crap. Not just any chocolate bar, but it looked like a very expensive brand and was generously sized.

In the human army there was regular meals and food but chocolate was still a rarity. It was a luxury food only indulged in by those who could afford it, which was pretty much the richer citizens or the higher ups in power. Needless to say Yuu had never had any, and had let go of that indulgent desire until it had landed literally in his lap now.

He needed to know who sent him this package right now.

With a new found determination Yuu looked at every inch of the cardboard box and every pocket in the clothes hoping to find a note or name. It was useless. There was nothing there.

But there had to be.

Yuu sat back with furrowed eyebrows as he tried to think over what to do. He fiddled with the wrapper of the chocolate, unable to help himself as he found himself peeling it back bit by bit…he just wanted a tiny peek…just a small look…

Oh. There was something in the wrapper! A few more tugs let loose the note hidden behind.

The handwritten message was short because of the tiny size of the paper.

"Dear Yuu-chan," Yuu read to himself beneath his breath. "There's many things I want to say to you but it's not safe to do so here. I don't know if the people you're with give you enough or take care of you so please take these. I'm coming to save you soon– from your dearest family…"

His hand was trembling.

Yuu broke off a piece of chocolate and put it in his mouth. It melted smoothly with the heat which had flushed over him as the tears fell from his face.

"It's sweet...Mika…"

* * *

 **Author's notes: I think it may be impossible for my to write anything for Owari without it turning into angst ONZ**

 **I would have labelled this as fluff and angst, but this website doesn't have a fluff genre label so I went with family as the next closest thing. I know a lot of ppl ship them tho so whether you see this as platonic or as familial is up to you.**

 **I found myself thinking a lot over the meals the children got when they lived with the vampires. I mean they got pretty excited over getting curry and rice and we saw them have a watery soup with a few veggies one ep which didn't look very appetising. And I was also stuck on the idea of Mika sending in care packages for Yuu because as far as he knows Yuu is being used by the humans and could be living in terrible conditions.**

 **Make me happy and leave a review!**


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